Comparison of within-stimulus and extra-stimulus prompts to increase targeted play behaviors in an inclusive early intervention program.

Abstract

Limited participation and sampling of stimuli by children in early childhood programs may restrict opportunities to respond and limit learning. The purpose of this study was to extend the concept of within-stimulus prompting (Schreibman, 1975) for use in an early intervention classroom to occasion play with previously low-contact toys in previously low-contact centers for two children. Kaitlyn was 27 months old and diagnosed with Down syndrome. Greg was 29 months old and diagnosed with autism. A reversal design was used to evaluate experimental conditions. For Kaitlyn, adult prompting more effectively occasioned toy play. For Greg, the within-stimulus prompt effectively occasioned play with planted stimuli in previously low-contact centers following the within-stimulus with adult prompt phase and return to baseline. ********** Maximal intervention growth in early intervention classrooms is likely to depend at least in part upon full participation and sampling of multiple stimuli (i.e., toys and activity centers). When a child exhibits low levels or highly restricted patterns (e.g., toy choices) of play in a classroom, the child may receive a restricted range and number of learning trials or opportunities to respond. Therefore, early childhood programs serving children with disabilities often seek ways to improve child participation and contact with stimuli across multiple activity centers in the classroom (e.g., blocks and manipulatives, computer, dramatic play, and reading centers). Adult prompting is well established as an effective training strategy (Wolery, Ault, & Doyle, 1992), and is commonly used to occasion toy play, speech, and other behaviors in early childhood settings (e.g., milieu teaching, incidental teaching). Effective adult prompting procedures require a child to attend to the programmed adult prompt or discriminative stimulus (e.g., Sean, go to the sand table) while simultaneously discriminating the naturally-occurring stimuli (another child leaves sand table creating an opening there). Correct independent performance of the skill necessitates transfer of control from the adult prompt to the naturally-occurring discriminative stimulus, a process that may produce an increase in errors, at least initially. In contrast to adult prompting, within-stimulus prompting (Schreibman, 1975) manipulates criterion-related cues to establish correct responding (e.g., carpet squares are used around the sand table for children to stand on, when a child leaves the sand table a carpet square is empty). Once correct responding is established, the cue can be faded (e.g., size of carpet square is gradually reduced until absent) so that the only remaining distinction is the criterion distinction (i.e., open spot at the sand table). Because within-stimulus prompting involves a relevant part of the training stimulus, it may effectively establish the response when the child attends only to a relevant part of the training stimulus. Thus, within-stimulus prompting may result in errorless transfer. That is, within-stimulus prompting does not require a transfer of control from a programmed prompt that is not intrinsic to the activity and allows for gradual, deliberate fading. Several investigators have demonstrated the potential utility of within-stimulus prompts to establish correct responding (Mosk & Bucher, 1984; Repp, Karsh, & Lenz, 1990; Schreibman, 1975). Schreibman compared the effectiveness of extra-stimulus (adult prompting) to within-stimulus prompting (stimulus shaping) to train auditory and visual discriminations with six children with autism. Schreibman found that participants always required a prompt to learn the discrimination and the within-stimulus prompting procedure effectively established auditory and visual discriminations whereas extra-stimulus prompting did not for most of the children. Mosk and Bucher used an alternating treatments design to compare the effectiveness of a stimulus-shaping with prompting procedure to a standard least to most prompting package (i. …